Godzilla 2 Casts Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch

Thomas Middleditch is making the jump to the world of Hollywood franchises with a role in the sequel, Godzilla: King of Monsters. T.J. Miller has already made the leap from Silicon Valley (a show he is exiting after season 4) to major franchise films with his appearance as Weasel in Deadpool, as has Martin Starr with his upcoming appearance as one of Peter Parker’s teachers in Spider-Man: Homecoming. If you count the LEGO movies as a franchise, then Kumail Nanjiani qualifies for this list as well, with his voice performance in the upcoming ninja-themed LEGO Ninjago Movie.

Not to be outdone, Middleditch has also scored a role in a possible franchise with his appearance in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (which opens in theaters this Friday). There was another franchise that Middleditch has already been involved in on the sly, and will be even more involved in going forward.

The information flew under the radar but Middleditch did make an appearance in Legendary and Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse movie Kong: Skull Island, as the voice of a never-seen character named Jerry. Now according to Variety, Middleditch is set to expand his role in the MonsterVerse by appearing on-screen (at least we presume he’ll be on-screen) in the planned 2019 release, Godzilla: King of Monsters.

Kong: Skull Island set up the MonsterVerse by establishing King Kong as a good guy, and presumably Godzilla: King of Monsters is meant to affirm that Godzilla is being cast in the role of the bad guy. Middleditch’s character Jerry is not even close to being an actual character in Skull Island, as all he does is call to Brie Larson from off-screen while she’s in her dark room early in the film, so it seems likely that Middleditch will be playing a totally different actual character when he appears in Godzilla: King of Monsters. Middleditch scored his cameo in Kong due to his long-standing friendship with director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, but his acting talent by itself was likely enough to get him the part in Godzilla (though it never hurts to have connections).

As fans who sat all the way through the credits of Kong: Skull Island found out, Godzilla: King of Monsters is set to include cameos by some other classic Japanese monsters. The film will go before cameras in Atlanta beginning in June, with another MonsterVerse film, Godzilla Vs. Kong set to follow (perhaps with Thomas Middleditch, perhaps not).